The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows—John Koenig's decade-long project of invented words for nameless emotions—became a bestselling book. But according to reporting from Waxy dot org, a San Francisco design agency called Qontour built an unauthorized copycat site. They republished Koenig's entire book, replaced its original artwork with AI-generated images, and created an AI feature to generate new words and definitions. The replica now outranks the official site in Google search results. Qontour profited through Amazon affiliate commissions on book sales. When contacted, Koenig said he had no involvement. His publisher filed copyright takedowns, but they were unsuccessful. The incident highlights a growing problem: design and marketing agencies using AI to repackage and monetize copyrighted work without author permission or consent.

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